Energy saving 'is a data center issue'

Energy saving is an issue for data centers, according to one analysis expert.

Hamish Macarthur, chief executive and co-founder of market research and analysis firm, Macarthur Stroud International, said that saving energy is part of the ongoing costs of every company.

He added: "However, it is when there are pressures on energy supply or when new data centers are being deployed that architecture and design considerations will focus on energy usage, and energy savings are maximized."

The comments follow a Greenpeace report examining the energy output from data centers.

According to the How Dirty is your Data? study, there have been some "significant advances in making data centers more energy efficient".

In spite of this, the sector as a whole appears to be largely ignoring the importance of using renewable energy in data centers, the environmental group remarked.

Data centers account for three per cent of the electricity used in the US and this is growing at a rate of 12 per cent each year.